Billfish Shootout WrapTag | First Published: April 2014

A total of 101 boats and 482 anglers enjoyed favourable fishing conditions for the 2014 Cabo Hatteras Billfish Shoutout in Nelsons Bay this year, chasing the very lucrative cash prize pool and a raft of great prizes.

Relatively calm conditions across the 2 days of the event allowed for some good fishing, with over 60 fish tagged and three big blue marlin weighed. The champion team award and the winners cheque for $12,500 went to the crew aboard Smartbill with a whopping 66,500 points. Billistic was second on 46,000 points and also took out the champion boat under 8m, while 3 teams finished on 35,500 points with Loosecrew taking out third on a countback.

The Heaviest Marlin prize went to Danny Frizzel and the team aboard Casey, topping the scales at 174.2kg caught on 37kg line, and taking home the Cabo-Hatteras $12,500 cheque for their efforts. Champion Junior Male winner went to Joshua Dickson with 23,000 points, with Luke Ashman the first junior to tag a marlin during the tournament getting into the action late Saturday.

The Billfish Shootout has a reputation for great camaraderie amongst the boats and crew and was evident again this year with plenty of laughs and stories told at the beer and prawn pre-briefing on Friday and the infamous presentation dinner held at the Wests Diggers Club in Nelson Bay on the Sunday night.

“Our tournament wouldn’t be the success it is without the support of our great sponsors and of course our naming rights sponsors Cabo-Hatteras thanks to Game & Leisure Boats,” said President of the Newcastle Port Stephens Game Fish Club Peter Simpson. “The ongoing support of the boats and anglers makes the event stronger and stronger each year. We’re looking forward to an even bigger event next year with the 10th anniversary of the Shootout under our current format.

Graham McCloy from Game & Leisure Boats said that Cabo and Hatteras has a proud reputation of supporting game fishing events around the world.

“It’s great that we can continue this tradition in Australia with our support of the Billfish Shootout,” he said.

For a full list of results from the 2014 Billfish Shootout visit www.npsgfc.com. – NPSGFC